8/02/2016

''' *BROWSERS* - NOT DIAMONDS- :

.ARE FOREVER! '''

*IN PURE PAKISTAN * -IF A PRIZE WERE to be awarded for lack of technical prose, to Universities and colleges and Students-

For never ever attempting to get inside a Browser to study and understand its construction, its scope and its genius, thousands by hundred thousands would compete for the award. The same sadly holds good for the entire region:

If you all, just allow me the liberty of one shot across the aisle, all I can say to the students of Pakistan is :

*That if you look at the history of ideas, -with fairness and open mind- the Muslims/Students have produced more polymaths than any other culture or civilisation* And where are you now?

ALMOST ALL BROWSERS -are horribly boring and terribly unwieldy, and it is because they are expected to do more than ever before:

Not just surfing the web, but editing documents, streaming music and much much more besides. As a result, priority is given to stability and ease of use.

Too many fiddly buttons could scare away novice users and even some of you. Innovation is outsourced to developers of *plug-ins*, which add features to a browser.

But before I proceed further, please, do bear with me, as I tap dance with a few segments of history, with you all in mind.

BROWSERS, pieces of Internet software that people probably spend more time with than they do in bed, have long been boring affairs.

Save for an occasional innovation such as tabs, these programs have remained fundamentally the same since the release of Mosaic, the first mainstream browser, nearly a quarter of a century ago-

Just four browsers account for nearly all users:

.- Apple's Safari.

.- Google's Chrome.

.- Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

.- Mozilla's Firefox.

*It is just so difficult to tell them apart*.

New, more interesting browsers have started cropping up. In August, Internet users will be able to download the first full version of *Brave*, the brainchild of co-founder of Mozilla.

Mozilla itself is working on a new type of browser which will give users suggestions on where to navigate next. Both are only the latest in a series of such efforts:

Last year Microsoft unveiled Edge, meant to replace Internet explorer; March saw the release of *Cliqz* , a browser developed in Germany; a month later came *Vivaidi*.

*Building a new browser from scratch is fiendishly difficult and difficult undertaking. Only Apple, Google and Microsoft have the money and resources to throw at developing a fast ''engine'', as the core of the browser is called*.

Their dominance also scares off investors. few venture capitalists are foolhardy enough to invest in a product that needs to take on three of the world's most powerful tech companies.

Mozilla is a non-profit which partially relies on volunteer developers and donations.

Insurgents are trying to overcome the obstacles in three ways. To reduce development costs, their products are based on existing open-source projects, such as Chromium which also powers Google's Chrome.

They get money from Angel investors who have appetite for risk. And most important they aim their products at niche segments.

*Brave*, for instance, is for surfers who prize privacy. It can block annoying online advertisements and privacy invading ''trackers'', which lurk on websites to follow users around.

*Cliqz* also blocks trackers and is integrated with a new search engine. Vivaldi pitches itself as a browser for ''power users''. It is packed with customisable features and comes bundled with an e-mail client. .

Such small browser-makers do not need the scale of their competitors to make money-

[Chrome has more than 1 billion users].

Both Vivaldi and Brave say they can break even with a few million users apiece. The easiest source of revenue is search deals. Companies such as Google pay roughly one dollar per user per year to be the default search engine on rival browsers.

Vivaldi is also experimenting with charging firms to be featured on its home page. Brave is trying to subvert the dominant online advertising model: it blocks intrusive advertisements such as self-starting videos, replaces them with less irksome ones and shares the revenues with publishers and users.

The market for Browsers has grown large enough to sustain such niche players. But the chances that these small fry will turn into big businesses are low.

Most people will continue using boring Browsers -if only because they are too lazy to install a slightly more interesting one.

Just as more and more Pakistani students will prefer to continue with a lazy and boring existence rather than liven things up by making a great content contribution to Sam Daily Times : *The Voice Of The Voiceless*.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW! -the World Students Society and !E-WOW! -the Ecosystem 2011: